Author: Mrs. H

Well, I guess you could say I’m finicky.  Or maybe, more like I just haven’t been satisfied with the overall look of my blog… like ever.  Sigh.  Perhaps I need to invest in the ability to customize every single detail.  Or maybe, just maybe, this new look will satisfy me for a while.  We’ll see.  Hmmm anyone want to place bets on how long it’ll stay before I switch to something else?  ha! 🙂

Yesterday was an interesting day.  FULL of heart-stoppers.  Seriously, ya’ll – it’s a wonder I lived through them all.  As if Becca actually calling me “mommy” for the first time the night before wasn’t enough (she normally says “mama”), she woke up 45 minutes late all snuggly and sweet and just laid her head on my shoulder for the longest time.  Be still my heart.

Then, we get to take Cody to lunch, and she decides to snuggle with Cody while in the line at KFC.  I mean, serious snuggles.  Again, my heart stops.  Nothing gets me like seeing my two loves together.  Snuggling.  (come on, let’s all do a collective “AWWWW”)

After her nap, though, came the REAL heart-stopper.  She’s getting good at going up AND down the stairs.  Which was our summer project after she accidentally ended up halfway up the stairs a few weeks ago after sneaking UNDER the gate … and realized she had no clue how to get down.  She was petrified.  So, she’s been doing good on stairs with lots of practice.  She even did the stairs at a friend’s house this weekend.  Except when Miss Independent takes over and she decides to do it her way.  I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, and she was at the top.  Thankfully, we have a short set of four stairs and a landing, then a turn and the long set of stairs.  Because she decided to stand up, holding on to the railing, and then try to walk down the stairs!  The girl who has taken at most four steps alone. And before I could do or say anything, she was on the landing.  This is why we are still in practice mode and mommy always sits on the stairs when she’s on them.  The tears that ensued took about 20 agonizing seconds to hit, and I still wonder if she didn’t briefly get the wind knocked out of her.  I ran up the stairs so fast that I’m not even sure if my feet touched all the steps.  I was in a hurry.  I picked her up and did a quick check – everything LOOKED fine.  Except for the bright red face that had crocodile tears pouring down it and of course, my ears, that were temporarily deafened by the screaming that was going on.  Poor thing.  She was a mess.  But I immediately realized that I had to make her go down the rest of the stairs.  Otherwise, she might forever be petrified of them!  I had to make her get back on “the horse and ride.”  So, despite her protests, I sat her down on the landing, and slid her bottom down every single step.  She finally calmed down and did the last two on her own, until she was sitting on the wood floor.  Thankfully, George was within sight inside her room, and she immediately took off for him.

Because of the stress of the situation, all she wanted to do for the hour and a half til her daddy got home was sit in my lap (with George), play on my phone, and listen to me read EVERY SINGLE BOOK SHE OWNS.  I happily obliged.  This girl doesn’t sit still in my lap that long – ever – in the history of her life!  I’ll take all the snuggles I can get!  Be still my heart.  Snuggles!!  Twice in one day!

Then somehow when it was time for bed, we just couldn’t get the normal rhythm.  I’m not sure what was wrong, but apparently EVERYTHING was.  Tears.  And tears.  And tears.  Finally, I went to check on her again and thought maybe she needed to potty.  So, I sat her on her potty and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  While she looked through all of her magazines – TWICE.  I asked if she was all done, and she didn’t say anything, but leaned forward, like she does when she is done… So I grabbed her hands to help stand her up… and… TEARS.  Heart stops again.  Warm shower on my leg.  Sigh.  Noone told me potty training would be THIS much fun.  In the dim lighting I was unable to see the fact that she was mid-stream.  My leg, her legs, the chair, the floor, her nightgown, and the pull-up do NOT thank me for failing to turn on the light.  Bless her heart, she was petrified.  Little Miss  Neat-and-Clean-Big-Girl-Who-Potties-On-the-Potty?  Yeah, notsomuch.  Sigh.  Thankfully after that trauma, she went to sleep fairly quickly.  I guess the stress just finally wore her out!

It’s a wonder my heart made it through the day yesterday.  What a roller coaster! But, I wouldn’t change ANY of them for ANYTHING in the world.

Here’s my sweet snuggle-bug yesterday morning sporting her new-to-her Elmo p-jammers and waiting on breakfast.  I just love this girl so much it’s crazy!

I used to be one of those gaggy, hop out of bed, sing-songy type of morning people.  At some point during early 2008 between teaching, working on my Master’s degree, and planning a wedding, I think something changed.  But if it wasn’t then, it certainly has after having a baby.  I still enjoy the mornings, but it takes a little more for me to roll my lazy butt out of the bed.

Fourteen weeks ago, I took a challenge from my best friend and started an accountability group called “Hello Mornings.”  It’s all about getting up and starting your day off the right way, and before the kids.  It’s about setting goals of all types – physical, spiritual, and activity goals – sharing them with friends, and then sharing the excitement when they are met, and yet not hearing any judgement if it just doesn’t get done – because that’s what life is all about.

Not only did that challenge help me build some friendships, bring me closer to God, and help me to be far more organized in my day, it has shown me some awesome things about our home and this fabulous hill we live on.  I love watching the sun stretch out over the valley.  I love listening to the symphony of birds greeting the day, and the occasional woodpecker already hard at work.  I love hearing the yips of young coyotes as they protest bedtime.  Cows moo in the distance, and rabbits hop timidly across the lawn, in hopes that Daisy isn’t outside to chase them away.  Toodles purrs and calls out to me as she tries to figure out how to get up to the deck from the back porch, and this morning I’ve been entertained by a road runner who appears to have beaten his mate in running out of the nest – in hopes that the “early bird” truly will get the worm.  (Normally we have a pair that roam our yard – this morning he’s just a single – oh wait!  Here comes his mate!  Someday I’ll bring my camera up here and get some photos of them to share – I haven’t seen them up this early before!)

When life is stressful, when it’s hard to get out of bed, I know what waits for me up here on this deck.  And it’s just magical enough that most mornings I don’t even need a cup of coffee.  This morning?  Well, it’s Monday.  And Starbucks Breakfast Blend with some International Delights Cinnabon creamer was calling my name.  Just enough to take the edge off of a headache I harbored all night that woke me up and stole a couple hours of my sleep from me.

So when it’s hard to roll out of bed, look for the inspiration around you.  Find what things YOU have to be thankful for.  Take joy in the small things.  Whether it’s a pretty little lamp on your bedside table that makes you smile, the pleasure of a hot shower, or the smell of your favorite candle or coffee brewing.  Remember in all things to be thankful for what you have been given.  Even on Monday morning when it’s hard.  Really hard.  Play Pollyana for just a few minutes and think of all the things you have to be glad about.  It will help you start your day in a positive light, and will impact your mood and the way you interact with people throughout your day.

So GoodMorning, and Have a WONDERFUL Monday!

Becca took her first two solid, unassisted steps today! Look out, world!! (No pictures yet- hopefully soon.). The best part was that Cody and I were both right there and saw her go! Our sweet little one is starting to grow some wings!

Wow.  This is my 70th post.  I’m sure I’d be close to 100 posts (or more!) if I counted my former blog in this count.  To think where I started, and how far I have come.  Wow.  When I first started blogging (back on my old page), I was preparing to be a mommy.  I was so excited about decorating the nursery, buying and washing and sorting tiny baby clothes, and was just renewing my knowledge of sewing.  It was January of 2012, and I was starting a new resolution to blog about my adventures as a mom.  I don’t by any means know truly all about being a mom yet.  I’m not sure I’ll really know what it’s truly like to be a mom until the day I die.  Because the scope of the duties of being a mom is something that seems to change every single day, and the more I think I know, the more I discover that I don’t know.

When I started that blog, I had lofty goals for my child – my child that at that point, I didn’t even know was a baby girl.  (Though I had my suspicions!)  I had lofty goals, and ya know what, she is surpassing them all.  This little angel is more amazing than I could have ever imagined.  She’s not yet 14 months old and she recognizes and can say the colors purple and blue.  She knows the shape circle.  (Though it often sounds like “gurgle”.)  And its in that moment when she says “gurgle” and points to the polka dots on the red teacup in her “Colors” book, that I realize we’ve come so much further than I ever thought possible in this past year and a half that I’ve been blogging.

I never dreamed my one year old would be wearing 3T clothes, and when I ask which shirt she wants that she would say “purple” and reach for the purple shirt of the three options I’d given her.  I never dreamed she’d be signing “fish” and saying “sh! sh!” over and over as she stares at the fish in the floor-to-ceiling sting ray tank at Sea World.  I never dreamed she would say “nuggle” and put her head in my neck and let me snuggle with her.  I couldn’t have even imagined the swell of pride, and the rush of love I feel in those moments.

She is so smart.  She is so happy (most of the time), and she is so strong willed.  Usually her will is to make Mommy and Daddy happy, but sometimes it’s to throw her food on the floor and make our dogs, “Bobo” (Boko) and Daisy happy.  But through it all, her greatest joy is to hear us say she’s a good girl, and she loves to parrot back to us, “Goo Gir.”  She WANTS to please, she WANTS to receive praise, and thankfully, we can usually give her that which she desires.  The times when I have to say “no” and pat her hand bring me back to the purple circle – I know that as with all academic knowledge, obedience must be taught – and sometimes learned the hard way.  And I’m thankful.  Life isn’t easy.  Life isn’t fair.  All of life isn’t roses.

But when you have a beautiful little girl who wants “uppy” for an “ug” and to “nuggle,” even when times are hard and that little girl stresses you out, there are times like looking at a book and spying the “gurgles” and picking out the purple shirts that remind us that what we teach matters.  I never could have imagined back when I first started blogging how important a job being a mom is… I had head knowledge, but now… now I have heart knowledge.  For just as she has to learn by doing, so do I.

May I always be the mommy God desires for me to be, and when I fail, because I will, may He always pick me back up and set me on the straight and narrow… and give me the strength to do the same with my precious baby girl.

Reading to her monkey, George, about ducks –
sitting in her rocking chair from Granny and PawPaw.
(She LOVES ducks.)